


The Memories That Make Us

by Methoxyethane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Amnesia, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 14:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18967324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methoxyethane/pseuds/Methoxyethane
Summary: Keith had amnesia. You know what that meant?He’d missed it. He was married to Lance and he’d fucking MISSED it. Didn’t remember their first date, didn’t remember how they got married, didn’t even know if they were newlyweds or had been at it for ages and ages. He didn’t know anything, and he either wanted to go back in time to where he belonged or he wanted to remember what he’d missed. He wanted it all back, damn it.





	The Memories That Make Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AmbitiousSkychild](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbitiousSkychild/gifts).



-

Keith woke up to find himself in the middle of a battle. That wasn’t so strange, as the last thing he remembered was gearing up for a battle in Voltron, but the time skip was a little disconcerting. Even more disconcerting was the fact that he was currently blade-to-blade with Pidge, as though the two of them had been fighting against each other.

He dropped his sword, stumbling back and looking around for an actual enemy. Raised his guard again, wondering if the Pidge was a fake and that’s why he’d been fighting her, but instead of taking advantage of his complete and utter confusion she was shouting, “Keith, you’re back!” In a relieved voice.

Oh, had it been him who was the enemy, then? “Brainwashed?” He asked, receiving a nod from Pidge who was smiling at him through her helmet.

Okay, that explained the time lapse. He must have lost some of his memory when they took over his mind, and couldn’t remember the beginning of the battle. For now he’d just follow Pidge to get out of there.

Black and Green were waiting outside, which was good because Keith didn’t think he actually knew what mission they were on anymore. Last he remembered was something about a Galran Nationalist Movement’s  weapons depot they wanted to investigate, but this was… not a Galran facility in the slightest. The entire base seemed to be made out of plants, like something the Olkarion would design but less streamlined.

It didn’t matter, they were on their way out. It just made Keith wonder if he was missing more time than he thought he was, but he’d figure it out soon enough.

They flew back to the castle alone, apparently not needing to rendezvous with the other three paladins whom Keith had thought had come with them. He was getting more and more nervous but refused to let it show, just calmly rode back to the Castle of Lions and tried to mentally calculate how much time needed to have passed for them to have been on a different mission entirely.

So, maybe he had lost like, a week or two. That wasn’t so bad, right? He could live without two weeks of memory. Although he really didn’t WANT to, like, what if while he was out of it he and Lance had… okay both of them were still too far up their own asses to actually ask for a date, but there could have been progress he missed out on. Lance might have flirted with Keith in whatever time passed and he’d MISSED it and never get it back, probably.

Okay okay there were more important things to be upset about than whether or not the guy he liked had smiled at him considering he’d just been brainwashed and given amnesia, but Keith was young and horny and had to have different priorities given his life was CONSTANTLY about Space War. Dude needed a break to flirt with a cute sharpshooter once in a while. It was nice to be excited about something.

“Everyone’s gonna wanna talk to you,” Pidge told him as she took off her helmet. “I totally shouted through the comm lines that you were brainwashed, they all sounded really worried.”

Pidge’s hair wasn’t doing the thing it was supposed to be doing where it bounced up in that little flip like it did, but staying soft like she’d gotten a different haircut. A longer haircut, and different glasses, and she looked… kind of… taller than before. Uh oh. This was getting worse by the second.

He finally took off his own helmet, and hyper-aware of change registered first that he couldn’t feel his own hair brushing against his neck like he was supposed to. Reaching behind himself he discovered not that it had been cut off, but instead a ponytail of a rather extended and telling length. At least several years worth.

He had just enough time to take of his gloves and check for a wedding ring - yep, PRESENT, he was wearing a ring! - before he and Pidge got to the bridge, where he was immediately bombarded with his well-intentioned friends.

One of whom Keith was apparently married to? He didn’t know. He wasn’t sure of anything yet, just knew that he didn’t want to tell anyone about the fact that he was missing several years of time until he was sure that’s what was going on. Or like. Maybe he could just get his memories back somehow, and no one would ever have to know he was experiencing any kind of… amnesia, or whatever was going on here.

And the first step was figuring out who the HELL he was married to. He was going to need to know that if he was gonna bluff his way through this memory loss.

That decided, he greeted everyone warmly, as if he was expecting everything he saw seeing. Hunk had a full beard and Shiro’s white lock of hair had extended to a full head of grey, making him look almost as old as his glasses did. How the hell old WAS he? Allura and Coran looked close to the same but that was no surprise considering they were Altean, Pidge he ready saw, Matt had grown his hair out into a ponytail, too, and was also on the bridge with everyone and not with rebels, and Lance…

Oh god. Oh god in heaven, please let it be Lance he was married to. He was taller than before, that was the first thing Keith noticed. Next was the glasses, and then he noticed the scar on his temple and forehead the glasses were almost covering up, perhaps the reason for said spectacles in the first place. He had a little bit of stubble on his jaw, appearing like he had forgotten to shave for a day or two but knowing Lance’s hygienic standards was probably artfully intentional.

And then he looked down to take in his body, which was all bulging muscles and broad shoulders and thick arms and he was so fucking HANDSOME and Jesus Jiminy Cricket Keith was swooning.

Possibly literally, as the next thing he knew he had fallen into Allura’s arms for a hug. Wait shit, Allura?! Was he married to Allura?! Keith had always figured himself to be gay, but if he was going to make an exception for anyone it would be her…

“Keith, you’re alright!” She was saying, and then everyone else was joining in on the hug to make it a group hug and great, how was he supposed to tell who his spouse was like this?! “We were so worried, Pidge said your mind had been taken over!”

They released him from the hug, and he had enough time in between all their cooing and fawning over him to investigate their hands. Everyone but Coran and Pidge had rings, and as much as he’d like to hope the natural conclusion was to marry Lance the truth was it was dangerous to assume something like that when love was so fickle. He had to figure this out, and fast. 

Allura naturally gravitated to hang off of Hunk’s arm, and okay thank God that was two down. That only left in this room Matt and Shiro, and while Matt wasn’t completely out of the list of possibilities Shiro kind of was, and since Keith had it on good authority that those two had recently started doin’ the dirty he was pretty sure he could assume their rings were matching, too.

Which only left one person…

Before he could so much as jump to any conclusions Lance was sweeping Keith into his arms, spinning him around for one loop and babbling about how sorry he was for not being there and “Are you sure you’re okay, babe?”

Keith blushed a mighty shade of red as Lance set him back down on the floor again, feeling all kinds of overwhelmed. So, it was Lance. He was in the future, or some dream of the future, and in it he was married to Lance. He was so full of feelings he didn’t even know what to do with himself.

Relieved and happy and anxious and terrified and probably more feelings than all of those, too. 

But mostly, confused. Mostly Keith was very, very confused. 

Everyone tried to ask him questions he didn’t know the answer to, like what he’d been doing when he’d been caught and what it felt like to be out of control of his own body. Keith knew none of this and didn’t know how or particularly want to explain just how little he actually knew right now, trying to back away from his friends and get a little space because it was getting hard to breathe. 

“Look, I’m pretty… I need some rest,” Keith excused himself, practically stumbling over his own feet in an effort to get the hell out of there. “I’ve been through a lot, and I just need to lie down.”

He ran out of there as casually as he could, the others calling after him worriedly but notably no one following. 

He made it all the way to his old room and inside, and the sick part was? He didn’t even notice it was completely empty until after he’d already lied down on the sheetless bed. Ha. Of course it was empty, now. It had probably been empty for years. Years and years of time, that Keith had just… missed.

Shit. He’d missed it. He was married to Lance and he’d fucking MISSED it. Didn’t remember their first date, didn’t remember how they got married, didn’t even know if they were newlyweds or had been at it for ages and ages. He didn’t know anything, and he either wanted to go back in time to where he belonged or he wanted to remember what he’d missed. He wanted it all back, damn it.

He wasn’t sure how long he lay there before a voice startled him. “You’re not okay, are you?” Lance’s new, deeper voice asked him worriedly.

“No,” Keith admitted, one arm slung over his eyes to block the world out of his sight. “I’m really not.”

“Is…” Lance asked uncertainty. “Is the reason you’re in your old room and not our bedroom because you needed space, or because…” He stopped. “You aren’t still like, possessed or anything, right?”

Keith sat up, sighing slowly. “I’m just disoriented,” He admitted. “There’s… a bit of memory loss.”

Lance was frowning at him, looking Keith up and down. “How much memory loss? What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Suiting up for a mission…”

“Okay, so only a few hours.”

“...to a Galran Nationalist's weapons depot.”

“Come again, now?”

Keith sighed. “A mission. To a weapons depot. A Galran one. Everyone was all suiting up and about to leave together.”

Lance’s jaw opened, but no sounds came out. “I literally cannot remember the last time we had to fight a Galra doing ANYTHING, much less an entire Nationalist movement. Those guys all died out or joined the GERT.”

“Yeah, I don’t… have any idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t heard of that or… I don’t know.”

Lance was striding forward, sitting down on the bed and taking Keith’s hand into his own like that action was completely natural in every way. “Keith… How much time are you missing here? Are we talking…”

Keith stared at their joined hands nervously. Hands. Lance’s hand, in his. Also the amnesia. Oh god. Fucking amnesia. “Years. A lot of years. So many years.”

“Oh my god,” Lance shot up, taking Keith with him with their joined hands. “We’ve gotta get to the med bay, or the healing pods or something! This is - do you even - how old do you think you are?!”

“Twenty,” Keith answered sheepishly.

“OH MY GOD,” Lance stopped in his tracks, grabbing Keith by the shoulders. “Are we even dating yet?!”

Keith shook his head. Lance wailed like a sad banshee, prompting everyone to come running. Yeah, great. So much for keeping this quiet.

—

The culprit that had stolen his mind had turned out not to be any enemy at all, but rather an innocuous plant growing out of a set of power core batteries on the ship they had been exploring. It had been a rescue mission actually, although when they got there there had been no one left to rescue, and he and Pidge had been exploring to try and see what had happened when Keith had reportedly gotten too close to a weird plant and totally wigged out on Pidge.

So after the prerequisite round of tests, procedures, scans, time in the cryopod, some tests on the flower that had mind whammied him, and a few more brain scans just to be safe, it was determined… that Keith had amnesia. Big surprise. The only thing NEW that could be determined was that it was probably temporary, and he should start remembering things on his own. If he didn’t, then Pidge said she could rig up a mind-meld helmet to let him see into his own head, but for right now it was better to just let the dots reconnect naturally.

The news was good, but also sucked. To Keith it felt like he’d been flung into the future, for everyone else it seemed like their beloved Black Paladin had regressed back into a child ten years younger than himself. It was… complicated for everyone.

He especially felt bad for Lance. The man was supposed to be his husband, and Keith didn’t even remember their first date. A husband of six years and they couldn’t even kiss, because to Keith it would be his first kiss and it was just too much too soon.

“Well, what can we do?” Lance asked, the two of them sitting down in their shared bedroom, which was huge and gorgeous and had a table in the middle for having coffee in the morning together before they set off for work. He knew that was the table’s purpose, because that’s exactly what they were using it for this morning. “If kissing is out, and you aren’t ready to move back into our room and sleep in the same bed with me, is there anything I am allowed to do? ANY kind of PDA? Just a little?”

He sounded like someone who wanted their husband back. Keith felt bad that he, practically a stranger at this point, had taken his place. “I guess hand-holding is okay?”

Lance slid his chair closer to Keith’s, putting his hand on his. And… this was fine. This was Lance’s hand, in his. On his. Or something. They were holding hands. He was holding hands with Lance, who he was married to. Not like, maybe gonna someday marry, he was super actively and currently married to him.

Oh god, he was blushing so hard. Like, atomic levels of blushing here, he didn’t know how to handle this and he was starting to shake, and that only made Lance hold his hand even tighter and wind their fingers together and Keith kept looking back and forth from their joined hands to Lance’s face and thinking, ‘Oh my god I did it I’m married to  _ Lance _ .’

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, voice kind and full of affection that made Keith’s spine tingle. “Do you need me to stop?”

Keith shook his head. “It’s fine, I just… didn’t think you’d go right for it like that. I’ve never…”

Lance’s smile was radiant, glowing with warmth like the Texan sun. “Never held hands with me before, I know. We’ll just get used to it one step at a time, okay? Together.”

Keith made a noise like a teakettle, and buried his face in his hand to hide himself. The other hand, of course, was still Lance’s.

—

So a few members of the team went back down to the ship Keith got possessed on to finish up the mission. Not wanting to leave a slightly debilitated Keith by himself, Lance stayed behind with him, inviting Keith to the training room to explain to him some of what he’d missed in an environment they both knew he’d be comfortable in.

“Like I said before, we haven’t fought the Galra in years,” Lance explained, casually boxing against a padding-firsted training drone. Keith had started out doing simple sit-ups but had ending up stopping in the name of watching Lance, who was quite a sight to behold in his tank top. He had hair on his chest and forearms that was doing things to Keith, he had somehow never pictured Lance would grow up to be so manly. God Keith was weak.

“There were still a lot of resistances for a while, little factions of Galra would unite to try and attack us to get revenge on their empire or shit.” The sweat glistening off his golden skin was also quite entrancing. “But eventually someone got a better idea, and they all started joining the Galran Empire Restoration Taskforce, or what we all call the GERT.”

“And what’s the GERT do?” Keith asked, finally remembering there were leg exercises he could do and still look at Lance for.

“So far, nothing bad. By restoration, they mean they’re gathering up all the troops and ships that had been spread across the universe, finding all of the stray soldiers and colonies to gather them all up on a few planets. Sounds like they’ll decide what to do with them later, and right now they just wanna make a united people again.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Keith remarked. “I’m glad for them. What about the Blade?”

“Doing the same thing they did when the war first ended,” Lance said, pausing as he wiped the sweat from his brow and sent the dummy away. He glanced at Keith. “The war HAS ended for you, right?”

Keith shrugged. “Zarkon and Haggar are dead, but Lotor has been doing a pretty good job of uniting their forces, and so far we can’t get the upper hand against that Sincline Robot of his.”

“Woowww,” Lance marveled in awe. “You really don’t remember shit, do you?”

It was Keith’s turn to laugh. “Just tell me what the Blade of Marmora has been up to since I’ve been out of it.”

“Most of the people you’re friends with are still alive,” Lance grinned at him. “And for the most part, their job is sort of the reparations and PR department. They’re trying to make up for past war crimes the Galra did and make the entire race look better in the eyes of the universe.” Rather condescendingly, he patted Keith’s head. “You help where you can.”

Keith swatted at that hand, his own braid nearly hitting him in the face from how fast he sat up to take a shot at Lance’s kneecap. “I’m not actually ten years younger you know, you can’t treat me like a kid!”

“If I’m not allowed to talk about the dirty stuff we’re supposed to be doing together, then you’re definitely still a kid.”

Keith knew he turned bright red in a blush again, just from the look on Lance’s face. “Cheater. You can’t win all arguments just by embarrassing me!”

Lance laughed, and the sound was deep and rich like warm coffee, and it was enough for Keith to get over his humiliation completely just for the privilege of hearing it. God he was weak. “Anyway, so in the meantime Voltron has been doing what he was probably designed to do in the first place, and do regular peacekeeping across the universe. Wherever someone says to themselves, ‘Hey the Galra don’t own this territory anymore, what’s to stop us from taking it?’ That’s where we step in and tell them to keep their fucking weapons to themselves.”

“How…” Keith considered this. “Noble? I guess?”

Lance shrugged. “What, you wanna just stand by and let colonialism start up all over the nice clean universe we just saved?”

It was Keith’s turn to laugh, standing up to bump his shoulders against Lance’s. It was harder now; he was used to he and Lance being of the same height but now the other man had a good six inches on him where Keith had stayed nearly his same teenage height, but the familiarity of the action was worth the simultaneous  weirdness of it.

That was a good summary of everything about this, actually. Simultaneously familiar and weird, everything around him was both new and old at the same time. They lived in the Castle of Lions but could go home to Earth to visit their families and pick up supplies at any time, Earth having become a sort of home base to return to when no other immediate plans needed to be attended to. 

He was still sleeping in his old room, not comfortable enough to share a bed with Lance when to him it felt like they weren’t actually married yet. All of his clothes were new though, and he wasn’t willing to move anything out of he and Lance’s room so every morning when he wanted to change he had to go in there and see Lance all… morning rough and sexy with stubble while he grabbed fresh clothes. Which then lead to them sharing a morning coffee together in that same room, because apparently it was tradition and Lance wouldn't even let him leave without it. Not that he really really minded. It was like.. ten minutes of reconnecting every morning. It was nice.

All of the people living in the castle were the same, but different as well. Pidge and Hunk were there and were still Hunk and Pidge, but the two of them had grown in more ways than one. When they worked together there was still teasing and bickering, but it wasn’t the stuff of children anymore. Everyone was an adult now.

Hunk and Allura were married now, too, and that wasn’t even the worst of it. They had a BABY, a teeny tiny little daughter with a teeny tiny little face and teeny tiny little hands, and her name was Elenor after Allura’s mother and she was… just the cutest little goddamned thing. Keith was absolutely terrified of her.

Shiro didn’t have any connection to Black anymore after his soul had been dragged out of her and shoved into a clone body, but he wasn’t why they were still in the castle. That was actually because of Matt, who as it turned out was not only a brilliant scientist and badass space rebel but also the spare paladin for Blue Lion whenever Allura was out of commission.

This had been discovered of course, when Allura had been pregnant. Kind of a long-term emergency they had needed to figure out, but fortunately Blue was the most adaptable of Lions and had roared for Matt when Allura had been too pregnant (i.e. throwing her guts up every hour) to deal with an attack on the castle.

Which was good, because later on that same year pretty much as soon as Allura recovered Keith shattered one of his hips, and even the healing pods weren’t enough to remove all the bone shrapnel in time. That event, as horrible as he is told it was at the time, conveniently paved the way for Black finally… FINALLY letting Allura in, taking over his role as Black Paladin during temporary circumstances like... Oh, this exact one they had here.

Anyway, so Shiro was on board because aside from a buttlaod of paladins controling Voltron, Coran needed to not be alone for when the time came to defend the castle itself. Which was often. Kind of everyone knew to target the Castle of Lions instead of directly going for Voltron itself.

Plus like. Married to their invaluable spare paladin. And had been for like nine years, meaning that as far as Keith’s personal timeline went the wedding was like… in a year. It was crazy to imagine they were really that serious about each other, but here they were a decade later and still…

Keith was watching them now, actually. And this was a couple who was really in love, and it made Keith feel… conflicting emotions to watch. Mostly he was happy for his brother and friend; seeing Shiro alive and happy had only been one of Keith’s life goals for a good while now. 

But he also felt… lonely. He knew he and Lance were supposed to be like that, but he wasn’t the same Keith Lance was supposed to be married to. He had missed all these weddings…

Matt was saying something incomprehensibly scientific and Shiro was watching him with a glowing smile on his face, a look like Matt was the sun itself and Shiro was lucky just to bask in his presence. It was a look he’d seen before, and suddenly Keith knew exactly where he knew it.

Oh right, he thought to himself simply, a memory forming in his mind. That’s the look Shiro had on his wedding night. He remembered from the reception, later enough into the evening that everyone was supposed to be focused on their own cake and wine and paying no attention to the grooms.

Keith had been watching them then, when they were exhausted from the wedding and just chatting quietly to each other in a corner. Matt was complaining about one of his relatives and Shiro had that same exact look on his face, and Keith had smiled, thinking about what a great day it had been…

And then Lance had laughed at him, and Keith had felt a hand in his hair. ‘You’ve got frosting in your hair,’ Lance had said, brushing the white away from Keith’s bangs. 

Keith had smiled back, blushing at Lance. They’d been together for a while now, but not long enough to make attending a wedding together feel natural and not embarrassing and awkward. Still, Keith had been so happy…

“What’s up with you?” Lance said in real time, and Keith blinked back to himself. 

Keith smiled. “Just thinking about something.”

A memory, huh? Maybe things would be okay after all…

—

So, Keith had gotten his first memory back, and suddenly everything wasn’t so stressful anymore. Just having a little piece of himself restored felt so different, like he wasn’t displaced in time anymore. He was where he belonged. He was just having a little trouble remembering that fact.

He wasn’t ready to tell Lance yet, not wanting to get his hopes up for only one stupid little memory. Yeah it was a memory that Keith wouldn’t give up for the world, but it was still only one, and… he needed to maintain that little bit of distance between them. Just until he had a few more memories back. Just until he was really the husband Lance missed so much.

And he really could tell how married they were, just from little things Lance did without even thinking about it.

He knew how Keith took his coffee in the morning, which even Keith hadn’t known about himself until he tried coffee the way Lance made it. He was always there backing Keith up, not in Voltron issues but in the little things Keith did now to fill his time instead. Any time Keith had a question or opinion Lance seemed there to validate it, make him feel safe without trying instead of inevitably stupid like if Keith had been without him.

He was there when Keith got up in the mornings to offer him breakfast, was there when Keith was his the training room to offer him water, was there at dinner to offer him a hair binder, and did all of it without thinking about a single act. It made Keith wonder…. what kind of things had he done for Lance, in return?

He wanted to know more. Wanted to learn about Lance, and about himself, about who they were when they were together. He wanted that history back…

So he asked. “What was our first date like?” Keith asked Lance one evening, hoping it would trigger a new memory… or at least sound familiar. They spent their evenings together, which wasn’t unusual even for Keith’s interrupted timeline. They had just always gravitated towards each other when they had nothing else to do.

Lance’s grin was the kind of suave-but-honest smile that always made Keith’s insides butterfly up. He hoped it never went away. “You want me to tell you the story?”

Keith nodded. “That’s why I asked, isn’t it?”

“All right, so how far back do you remember, again? Tell me at age nineteen I was at least getting my flirt on with you. Are we at least flirting?”

It was Keith’s turn to laugh, just a small one. “Yes, we are at least flirting. There’s a reason I was only  _ kind _ of surprised to find out we got married.”

Lance laughed again, “You had better not have been surprised. You’re the one who first asked me out, you know.”

Well, that didn’t seem right. “I was?”

“Yeah you were,” Lance smiled, looking straight into Keith’s eyes with an expression so soft Keith could barely stand it. “Although at the time it may have been an accident? I’m not sure what your original intention was, but someone was having a huge carnival in Voltron's honor after we saved their planet. It had been a while since I felt comfortable putting even fake moves on Allura anymore but I was still too chickeshit to actually ask you out, so I had been like, planning on spending the day with Hunk just because I didn’t know what else to do. And then you said to me, you got me alone, to ask me if I wanted to check out the carnival with you. And like, I was already crushing super hard on your dumb mullet, so no way I was gonna turn that down.”

Lance’s eyes were rolled upward, like he was trying to remember as many details as possible. “God, it was so long ago now, what did we even do… I remember looking at all the shop stands, and one of them had knives on display and I had to drag you away from it because you were busy bitching about how terrible the quality of their wares were. And the food stands, we couldn’t identify any of the weird alien food so we make a contest out of finding the absolutely weirdest looking shit and daring each other to eat it.”

“In fact, we made a contest out of everything!” Lance recalled, a look of amusement painting his features. “Any game we could find we made a bet of who could win the other the biggest prize, we both ended up with arms full of stuffed animals and trinkets by the time we got to the…” He slapped his own thigh, laughing. “The tunnel of love! We thought it was another ride, were trying to make each other sick by riding the fastest and scariest shit we could, but then one of them turned out to be this romantic ass ride and we were both bushing so hard! God it was great.”

Wiping a tear of mirth from one eye, Lance sighed. “Oh Keith, we had so much fun. I remember, we uh… We ended up on the Ferris wheel last. Up until then we could have mistook it for just a friendly outing and not a real date, but then you sat right next to me and you held my hand, and there was this beautiful sunset and you looked at me it’s the cutest face and stuttered out, ‘So, um. I guess this turned out to be kind of a nice date, huh?’ And I was just… way too embarrassed to kiss you yet,” Lance laughed.

Keith blinked, and while everything else Lance had said sounded familiar at best, the word kiss triggered a different memory entirely.

It was their third date, he was pretty sure. Third official one maybe, but either way it early enough that up until now the last dates had been all tense and nervous. They were used to being around each other but needed to re-learn that relationship all over again as a couple, had to get used to the awkwardness of being boyfriends.

Keith would have been nervous underneath the surface of that carnival date, been anxious about finally putting his move out the entire day. And the next date after that would have been even worse, but this one? This one was the third date. The magic spot where they finally figured out just a little bit of who they were gonna be together, when they were finally comfortable enough to completely let down their guards.

At least, it had felt magical to Keith. Other people’s third dates didn’t have to be like his was, anyway, because his was better.

Lance had suggested they both cook for each other, which was a romantic idea in theory but in practice was… Well Keith’s personal experience in cooking had even  canned beans and lizards over a fire, so his half of the meal had been… questionable. But Lance wouldn’t have suggested they cook if he couldn’t do it himself, and his part had been more than serviceable.

They were having so much fun cooking dinner though, they decided to take it even further and make desert. They’d been to Earth to get real food by then, or at least the base ingredients of real food like flour and sugar, and that had included a cookbook Hunk had brought back from his own kitchen. That book had recipes for desserts to try making, so together Lance and Keith had decided to try making peanut butter cookies because it was the one recipe they actually had all of the right ingredients for on hand.

Granted just because they knew how the recipe worked didn’t mean they knew how to use their utensils, and they had blasted peanut butter batter all over themselves on the first attempt to use the mixer. The laughter they had shared was so natural, and Keith remembered that feeling of joy so strongly now…

In the end the cookies they had made had been good, way better than dinner had been. At least that had been Keith’s opinion, but since Lance was the one who actually knew how to cook Keith had found himself looking up to Lance and asking more nervously than he’d ever later admit, ‘So, are they any good?’

Lance had hummed, pretending to need a long moment to think about it. ‘They’re perfect,’ he had grinned, relieving Keith of all tension for the half a second until he continued with, ‘Just like you are.’

Keith had blinked at him Lance had sort of taken a moment to blink back, just realizing how corny that joke had been. Lance had started to laugh but Keith interrupted him, swooping forward to pull Lance’s head down to where he was for their very first kiss.

“Keith? You’re zoning out again, are you okay?”

“I,” Keith bit his lip, eyes watering. The first memory wasn’t just a fluke. It was slow, but was getting his memories back. “I remember,” was all he needed to say. “Our first kiss, I remember.” 

Lance’s eyes lit up. “You… you got a memory back?”

Keith nodded, vision flooding with unshed tears. He dove forward into Lance’s faithful arms, who caught him and held him close. 

For the first time, both of them knew that everything was going to be okay.

—

So they were in the training room working off some steam, because that was what Keith did. Also he wasn’t quite used to his own body weight right now and needed to get back to his full strength before the next time an emergency hit. And to feel more like himself, also.

There were moves his old self new that his current self didn’t, and so he wasn’t keeping up well with Lance right now. Not that he could possibly bring himself to mind, when Lance was just… so spectacular to watch up close in action like this.

No seriously, over the years Keith must have goaded him in the training with Keith so much that he’d become a master at close combat right alongside him, and even though he’d seen it in person before the first time Lance’s bayard had transformed into a sword for their little tête-à-tête, Keith had almost busted himself a nut. Okay not literally, but it was really cool and Lance looked so badass swinging it.

They weren’t using swords now, just fighting hand to hand and keeping it close. The swords were fun and all but Lance’s real skill was still with a gun, and he just wasn’t at a high of a level of prowess going blade to blade to keep up with Keith even in this state. Keith just knew his way around a knife better.

And Keith wanted to push himself right now, wanted every fight to be as hard as possible, bring him to his absolute limits. Not out of any kind of masochism, but just out of hope it’d trigger some kind of memory, or even just his body would start remembering when his mind wasn’t quite caught up yet.

He didn’t know if it was working or not, but it was quite the workout either way. It probably didn’t help his position that Keith was trying to fight Lance of all people, who even if Keith wasn’t like totally in love with was still so sexy that it was literally a distraction.

No, seriously. Lance blocked one of Keith’s kicks, and he got this little smirk on his face like Keith was totally in for it now, and he was so busy falling all over his own dick that he couldn’t stop Lance from flipping him onto his back and pinning him.

And then he was on his back, and Lance was hovering above him, and sweat was dripping off of Lance’s temple to land on Keith’s cheek. Keith’s breath caught in his throat, spine and heart both rattling with shivers, feeling so hot he might just melt into the floor and god he wished Lance would lean down just that little bit further to close the distance between them and kiss Keith…

He’s your husband, you know, a voice in the back of his head told him. You didn’t travel in time, there it’s no ‘your Lance’ to go back to. This is the only Lance, and he loves you, and you’re probably allowed to kiss him.

“Lance…” He said, his voice small and embarrassingly thin when it whispered out of his throat. 

Lance blinked down at him, looking into his eyes and instantly getting swept into the same moment Keith was. “Keith,” he whispered back, licking his lips.

Keith shivered again. “Get off of me?” He requested.

Lance practically shot up off him, hands unwrapping from Keith’s wrists and rolling off of Keith to sit on the floor a few feet away. Keith giggled, crawling over to where Lance had planted himself and sitting next to him. And then Keith leaned over himself, planting a short kiss on Lance’s bewildered lips.

It was the look on Lance’s face that triggered it. He was looking at Keith with an expression of absolute awe and wonder, like being kissed right now was the last thing he expected in the universe. 

He had seen that expression before, Keith knew. And no, it wasn’t from their first kiss - Lance had looked dumbfounded with happiness but not as much surprise back then. It was the pure shock, like Lance didn’t think he deserved to be blessed with Keith’s touch and didn’t know what to do now that he had it.

The memory was happy in a bittersweet way. They had just gotten into a huge fight - no. It wasn’t that it was big, it was their very first fight since they’d started going out. The first real one, anyway, the first one that had ever mattered.

It was in the training room. Lance came there to meet Keith, to apologize for getting so angry at him when Keith had been doing what he thought was best for the mission. 

It was a stilted apology, like he only half meant it and was still angry at Keith. But Keith remembered the feeling of indignant rightness, remembered knowing that if Lance had been in his position he’d have done the same, would have been just as reckless and stupid.

But he also remembered feeling guilty about cutting off communication like that. If he hadn’t gone offline for so long Lance wouldn’t have had to worry for so many hours while Keith was busy escorting a handful of families through a battlefield. He hadn’t meant to, but the planet’s electrical fields had interfered with the com lines and Keith had chosen to keep going with his mission instead of finding a way to report back to Lance that he was alive after the last thing his boyfriend had heard was an ominous, ‘I’m going after them.’

They had had a huge blowout argument when they got back, had stayed at mad at each other for hours after the things they’d said. But then that night, after some time cooling off when both of them had the opportunity to regret what they’d said, Lance had come to him.

Lance had apologized first, even though he’d only been reacting to his fear for Keith’s life. The gesture had made Keith’s heart swell up with gratitude to have such a man in his life, and he’d kissed Lance before he’d even remembered he needed to apologize back.

The look on his face when he’d pulled back? That was the one he had now, in real time. Keith watched as it transformed into a dopey smile, Lance asking “What did I do to deserve that?” And idly touching his fingers to his lips like a schoolgirl.

“For being patient,” Keith said, reaching for his hand. “I’m sorry I had to pull away for so long, but I promise I’m feeling more like myself every day.”

Lance’s smile was the kind that could melt glaciers into goo.

—

He really was feeling better every day, it wasn’t an exaggeration. Most of the memories he was getting back were mundane and boring, but they were still HIS, and they meant the world to Keith. A flashback of him talking to Hunk about a mission they were in the middle of my not seem valuable on it’s own, but it was still a memory of one of his precious friends and Keith would appreciate every detail of it.

After he and Lance had started kissing again, things changed a little too. Lance wans’t so afraid to touch him anymore, wasn’t treating Keith like some fragile little thing he needed to keep a distance from. He’d gotten enough memories back now that the only thing he was too far behind on to feel comfortable doing was sexy stuff, which meant tackling Keith in random python hugs he couldn’t escape from was back on the table.

In fact, so far onto the table were hugs, that Keith had agreed to move back into his shared bedroom with Lance. The main problem he had was sleeping together, and he’d been in their bedroom often enough now to know their bed was actually pretty huge so he wasn’t afraid of being able to roll away from Lance in the middle of the night if he needed space.

He’d never moved any of his things out of there so there was nothing to move back in but himself. All he had to do was go back to sleeping in his own bed with his own husband, and tonight was the night he’d told Lance he’d do it.

So here he was. At night. With Lance. About to go to bed.

“Which side do I sleep on?” He asked, wearing naught but his pajammies and twiddling his braided hair in manner that was in no way a nervous gesture. 

“The side closest to the door.” Lance’s smile was unnaturally soothing. Probably because of how gay Keith was for him, was why it was so calming. The. The being in love with him, thing. Which Keith was probably allowed to admit he was. You know. In love with the man whomst wedding ring he was wearing and bed he was about to share. That was safe.

And so was this bed. Which Lance was already crawling into, and staring expectantly at Keith. Forcing Keith to actually like… do what the natural and sane thing to do right now was and lie down.

He started by sitting. Okay. This was dumb. Why was he taking baby steps, it was a fucking bed. Man up keith, you’re almost thirty.

Wait. Keith’s head whipped around to Lance - “Am I thirty?”

“Not for about two months.” Lance told him, and Keith relaxed. Okay, so at least he would be there for the moment he got old. Not that it really mattered.

Keith finally laid down, flat on his back and slipped the covers over his body. Thirty wasn’t that old anyway, right? He certainly didn’t mind the idea of Lance being that old, he just… didn’t really wanna get there himself ever. 

Well, he had still only gotten a few random memories from throughout the years back so far. Most of the memories were early on, like his brain was trying to fill in the blanks in order so as not to overwhelm him, but now a few more recent memories were popping up all the time. I was a slow process, remembering almost a decade of time one odd detail at a time.

Today he had remembered that baby Elenor liked it when he sang, and so he’d sung her a little lullaby. The day before, he’d remembered the last time they ever battled Lotor what happened to the Galra empire. Every day brought something different.

He let out a deep breath, the air slowly whooshing out of his lungs. Next to him, Lance was close enough to hear his breathing, as well. 

“Are you almost relaxed?” Lance asked Keith, his voice quiet to match the dark. 

“No,” Keith said honestly. 

It only made Lance laugh a little, shifting closer to him in the bed. “Me neither. I haven’t been able to sleep without you, you know?”

“It’s only been a few weeks,” Keith felt himself blush, and at least comforted himself knowing Lance wouldn’t be able to see it. 

“Yeah but I’ve been sleeping next to you for years and years,” Lance argued, and Keith noticed he was moving closer still. “You don’t know what it’s like for a guy like me to be without his husband so long, you know? Last night I was so excited about you coming back home I don’t think I slept a single minute.”

“You’re exaggerating. Why are you moving closer? Are you gonna hug me again?”

“I need my little spoon!”

“I’m not a little spoon, I’m a knife!”

His protests didn’t stop Lance fro grabbing him, strong arms looping around Keith’s waist to pull him in close. “Just for a little while, once I’m asleep you can shove me onto the floor if you need!”

Keith made a whiny embarrassed noise, but didn’t struggle out of Lance’s arms. Just let himself be held and let himself experience it, the warmth and strength of Lance’s arms around him. The feel of his breath against his neck, hot and rhythmic with the rise and fall of his chest against Keith’s back. 

This close, he couldn't just hear his breathing - he could hear Lance’s heartbeat. It was… calming. It made the tension leak out of Keith’s shoulders and his head finally relax against the pillow.

He tried to synchronize their breathing. In and out, in and out. Lance’s breaths were a little bit longer than his, and he couldn’t keep up easily. Still, it was calming to try, and soon Keith felt himself drifting off to sleep.

And then about an hour later he got overheated and started feeling smothered, and both of them woke up to Keith kicking Lance in the stomach.

“JEsuS!” Lance yowled, nearly falling out of bed from the force of Keith’s donkey legs. “What the fuck man, I was dead sleep!”

Keith grumbled, now close to fully awake due to the fucking moron screaming in his ear. “What, what, I didn’t do anything!”

“You kicked me, you bitch!” 

“You told me I was allowed!”

“Oh my god, so you do it on PURPOSE?” Lance huffed angirly, rolling over to the far side of the bed and taking every one of the blankets with him. “That’s it our marriage is canceled I’m never sleeping next to you again.”

Keith thought about the situation. “I’m cold now,” is what he decided, scooting in to try and steal blanket’s out from under Lance’s cocooned body. “Give those back.”

“ _ Nooo _ . You wounded me, Keith! Wounded my delicate body and now I’m dying and it’s all your fault.”

‘Stop being a baby,’ Keith wanted to say. He didn’t have time to. A memory was flooding his mind, stealing the breath from his chest and replacing it with a cold chill before he got the chance to say or think anything.

Lance dying. All of it his own fault. The blood, the desperate attempts at CPR, the waiting, the holding Lance and hoping and sobbing into his husband’s hair and waiting and he’d killed Lance, he’d gotten them into this stupid battle and Lance had been shot in the face and he wasn't waking up and there was nothing he could do…

“Keith!” Lance’s voice shouted to him, but the memory was still so fresh and clear he could taste the metallic tang of blood just from how strong the smell was… “Keith, come on baby, stop crying, where are you right now?”

Was he crying? Keith hadn’t noticed himself start. But suddenly he could feel the weight of the mattress again, could feel his own unsteady ragged breaths as his lungs tried to pull in more air. Lance was out of his nest and pulling Keith into his arms, shushing him quietly and repeating “I’m here baby, whatever’s wrong I’m here.”

Keith almost wanted to laugh. He’d gone from cradling Lance in his arms to being cradled in Lance’s in half a second of consciousness, and he was still crying. The memory of how Lance had gotten that scar next to his eye still playing over and over again, fresh like an open wound.

Lance gathered Keith up close in his arms, rocking and whispering chants of platitudes in his ear until his crying calmed down. And then when the sobbing turned into sniffles he sang, whatever Spanish lullaby happened to come into his mind, and hearing Lance so obviously alive and breathing and trying to comfort  _ him _ of all things was enough to bring Keith back into reality.

“Was it another memory?” Lance asked after his song had ended, and Keith had finally calmed down. 

He nodded, head buried into Lance’s neck. “Watched you get shot.”

It must have been a memory that had caused him trouble before, because without even having to ask ‘which time’ Lance was assuring him, “I’m alive though, aren’t I? Didn’t even need to get a glass eye or anything, nothin’ left but a scar and a bad memory.”

Keith only sighed, so Lance continued. “And I bet you haven’t bothered to remember afterwards, when you personally nursed me back to health in an itty bitty white skirt. Hand fed me grapes in a nurse’s uniform, it was totally worth almost losing an eye for.”

Keith’s head shot up to cast a glare at Lance, swatting him lightly on the chest with a scold of “I did fucking not!”

“Oh yeah? Do you specifically NOT remember doing it? You can’t say for sure I’m lying!”

Keith’s jaw dropped opened, and instead of whatever indignant response was curling under his tongue ready to fall out what happened instead was a laugh. “You can’t use my own amnesia against me, you dick!”

Lance laughed back, and since Keith was still lying on top of him it shook both of their bodies with the force of his giggles. “Feeling better though, right?”

Keith layed his head back down onto Lance’s chest again, mumbling a reluctant affirmative. “You’re still a dick. But yes.”

Lance pet his hair, and let out a slow yawn. “Am I a dick who’s allowed to go back to sleep?”

Keith sighed, just as tired, but still of a restless mind. The image of Lance bleeding still refused to leave his mind entirely. “Can you… can you tell me another story?”

“Oh jeez,” Lance said. “Okay. Um, shit… do you remember that time while Allura was pregnant when we were trying to find time alone?”

Keith shook his head. Lance continued, “Okay. So, everyone was working on overdrive trying to keep up with everything we needed to do for King Rebule’s coronation on Parris 4, since Allura and Coran were the only ones who knew anything about Parrisian culture we were also at the same time like, bored as hell with nothing to do. So since everyone had been staying in the Parrisian palace you and I couldn’t really find anywhere but our bedroom to like… be alone, but Allura and Hunk’s room had a door that adjoined to ours like a freakin’ hotel. 

“And Allura was always sick from the pregnancy, so whenever she wasn’t working she’d either be in her own room, or in OURS. So in between all of the diplomatic meetings getting shit ready, you and I would try and find somewhere in the palace we could sneak off and like, make out or whatever…”

Keith listened to the story, letting himself imagine an alien palace he couldn’t quite recall on his own. He fell asleep before the story was even over.

—

So Keith’s memories were recovering fast enough that they felt safe to go back to Earth for a short visit, and also restock on supplies while they were at it. It had been nearly three weeks since he lost his memory, and other than no one trusting him on missions again for some reason everything in life was settling into a slow kind of normal.

Well, not real missions anyway. They had trusted him and Lance with a shopping list and money when they got to Earth, sending them to Costco in Red Lion.

Still, it was nice to be back in Red with Lance. The two of them shared a special bond with this Lion, being the only one both of them had piloted and therefore slightly more welcoming than Black was to Lance.

Also, Keith already had memories back of them doing dirty things in this particular Lion, which was. Hard not to think about right now, as they loaded up the cargo bay inside of Red’s ass with huge boxes of groceries and toiletries. 

Plus, Lance doing manual labor of any pointless or tedious variety was still enough to do Things to Keith. Maybe it was because it had been nearly a month since they’d touched each other and their bodies were both getting pent up, so to speak.

“How many carts are left?” Lance was asking, standing close to Keith in the small space. 

“Just one, with the water jugs.” Keith told him, glancing up at Lance and tossing him a smirk. “You know,” he stepped closer. “Up close like this, you’re pretty cute.”

Lance laughed, low and deep in his throat. It was a nice sound. “Oh yeah?” He said, leaning down casually to place one arm on the wall behind Keith’s head. “Whatcha gonna do about it?”

Keith only had to lean forward a little bit to kiss him. He could feel Lance smiling into the kiss, his other hand wrapping around Keith’s waist to draw their bodies into each other as their lips pressed together.

Soon Keith was opening his mouth just the tiniest bit in a sigh, letting his lips part for Lance to slip his tongue in between. Keith nearly giggled into the kiss, but he let Lance inside, his tongue licking Keith’s bottom lip before pushing in past his teeth to explore the roof of his mouth.

Keith’s arms looped around Lance’s neck, relaxing into his arms as the kiss deepened. He had just enough of himself back to feel confident in this kind of light touching, and pushed his tongue back to massage against Lance’s while his fingers looped happily into each other around the back of Lance’s neck.

Lance was sucking on his tongue now, and Keith felt himself turn into melted butter in the face of his husband's awesome kissing. They’d been kissing fairly a lot lately but never quite like this, never quite having the right timing to take it further than a quick peck of affection here and there, and now… they were full on making out. It was kind of awesome. Keith felt like a teenager again, which was especially weird when you considered three weeks ago he could have sworn he was one.

The hand that had been pushing against the wall left it’s place for both of them to fall against it, Keith’s back hitting Red’s interior with a muffled thump as they didn’t break their kiss. But the hand Lance ha just freed for himself was winding into the back of Keith’s head, fingers twisting into Keith’s long hair to give just the slightest little tug.

Keith gasped, arousal weakening his knees instantly. Okay, that had not been a thing he knew about himself, and now Lance was tugging on his hair a little harder to get Keith to moan into their kiss, and Keith’s head was rushing with the dizzy beginnings of lust.

Which is why Keith let his hands fall to Lance’s shoulders to give him a gentle push away, finishing the kiss with one last little longing press of lips while keith slipped out from between Lance and the wall with a mumbled, “We gotta get that last cart into the bay.”

Looking rather dazed and lascivious as well, Lance nodded. Keith didn’t tell him He’d gotten his hair messed up.

So dazed was Keith, in fact, a few minutes later when he saw Lance kneeling on the ground to put the last two jugs of water into the floor of the cargo bay, Keith mistook it for something else.

It was a memory, at least. The war had just ended, ad things were settling into a new era of peace the universe over. Keith had just come back from a meeting with the Blade, trying to decide what to do with the remaining Galra forces after the ten thousand years of fighting.

The meeting had taken hours and had barely needed him at all, all petty bickering between lost soldiers with no idea what to do without a war to fight. He had been tired, and he hadn’t seen Lance all day and Keith just wanted to go home and take a shower and go to sleep sharing a bed with his hot boyfriend. 

When the door to their bedroom had opened, the lights didn’t turn on like they were supposed to. Instead the room was bathed in a soft red-orange light, and Keith realized that’s because the room was being entirely lit by candles.

That was when he registered Lance, one knee on the floor, looking up at Keith. His breath caught in his throat, and he could feel his heart speed up in his chest, gazing down at Lance kneeling on the floor and looking at keith with the combination of apprehension and adoration that could only mean…

‘Keith…’ Lance had started, ‘We’ve known each other a long time now…’

‘No,’ Keith accidentally blurted out.

‘No?!’ Lance reeled, head jarring backwards with an audible snap. 

‘No, I mean yes, yes,’ Keith laughed, hands covering his mouth. 

‘I haven’t even asked you the question yet!’

‘Yes, though!’

‘Do you even want to see the ring? I paid,’ Lance laughed, like he couldn’t stop himself. ‘I paid so much for it, Keith, at least look at the ring.’

Keith laughed, falling to his knees to meet Lance on the floor while his boyfriend- fiancé? Ooh, Keith liked that, he liked being able to call Lance his fiancé - pulled out and opened a small box with a black ring with a sparkling thin red band running through the center. ‘It’s beautiful… Keith told him, picking up the ring and letting Lance slip it onto it’s finger. ‘I don't. I don’t have a ring for you yet, it’s still on hold at the store.’

It was Lance’s turn to blink in surprise. ‘At the store? You already BOUGHT one?’

Keith laughed, eyes flickering obsessively from his newly ringed finger to Lance’s eyes. ‘Yeah, I… You beat me to it. I was gonna propose like, in a month.’

Lance laughed too now, sweeping Keith into his arms for an extended and much needed hug. ‘Keith. Keith. Will you marry me?’

Keith joined him in the laugh, burying his face into Lance’s neck. ‘Only if you marry me first.’

Back in real time, Lance was standing up straight and looking at Keith expectantly. “Well that’s everything. Should we get the hell out of here?”

Keith gave him an enigmatic smile. “Only if you marry me first.”

Lance laugh was brighter than the light from any sun or star they’d ever seen.

—

The only thing Keith was still missing at this point was his old habits, which he was picking up at a rate that was almost alarming. The way he did his hair, the way he fidgeted with his wedding ring, workout routines he’d ingrained into his body by habit.

He started doing more with Lance, as well. Keith didn’t know he’d ever made breakfast for the two of them before he’d found himself stumbling into the kitchen half-asleep with coffee in his hands and pulling out the fixings for omelets for two. 

When they went to sleep, Keith stopped kicking Lance away and started leaning back into him, body remembering how badly it wanted to be by his husband even during sleep now.

He even found himself doing things he’d never imagined he’d find anything but embarrassing, like kissing Lance in front of their friends and sitting on his lap anytime they were on a couch to stop and relax for extended periods of time like watching a movie. 

It felt like a missing puzzle piece had been returned to him, one that he hadn’t even known was gone. He absolutely loved it, loved every new detail he discovered about himself. The amnesia had started out a curse, but now that it was almost over it felt more like an adventure. 

Lance had put on music to do the dishes to, since Hunk still made dinner for everyone and therefore couldn’t be held accountable to clean up after everyone, too. Keith was there to “help,” but since there was a pretty reliable dishwasher in the castle that just needed to be loaded up there wasn’t much for him to do but sit on the counter and watch the way Lance’s hips swayed to the music.

“Come on carino, don’t just sit there like a lump.” He pulled Keith down from the counter, hands landing securely on his hips. He used that grip that make Keith sway with him to the music, pulling him out into the middle of the kitchen floor to dance with him. “Join me.”

The upbeat music was infectious, but not nearly as much as Lance’s smile was. Keith couldn’t help but go along with it, arms looping around Lance’s neck to join him in the beat of the song.

There was a memory surfacing, new and old at the same time.

Keith had never been one for dancing, no matter how hard Lance tried to convince him to join him and at least try it. Lance of course claimed to having dancing ingrained into his Cuban soul, and would take any opportunity to embarrass himself by shaking his ass in front of total strangers.

What that meant was the first time they ever danced was the first time Keith had ever danced, and that had been at their wedding. Keith hadn’t even bothered to ask Shiro to teach him beforehand, just dove straight from no dancing in his life to dancing with his husband in front of all their friends and family, which was… probably not smart, in retrospect.

Honestly, he’d forgotten he’d even have to do it until they actually got to the wedding reception and the DJ called out for the married couple’s first dance together, and Keith suddenly realized that was him. So Lance had pulled him to the dance floor, nervous and red-faced and with no idea what to do.

But Lance had smiled and held his hand, the other on his waist to guide him, and led them smoothly through a dance Keith never thought he could know the steps to. Slowly, he leaned his head on Lance’s shoulder, feeling for the first time in his life as graceful as Lance always looked.

And after the dance Lance hadn’t been able to keep his hands off of Keith the entire night, Keith remembered with a smile. Not in any inns of sexual way, just as in a ‘I did it this is my husband and he’s mine,’ sort of way, and Keith had loved every second of it.

Loved every second of this dance, too. Maybe even more than the dance from their wedding, because this one was after being together for nearly ten years and still being just as… Just as in love as they always had been.

God, Keith was in  _ love _ . The way Lance’s eyes crinkled when he smiled, the way his mouth already had laugh lines, the way his hair curled no matter how short he tried to cut it. The way he sang, the way he danced, the way he held Keith at night. The way they were together in battle, side by side and completely in sync. Keith would never meet anyone else so wonderful in ten lifetimes. 

“Having fun, babe?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow at the stupid lovestruck look dumbing Keith’s face. 

“With you?” Keith grinned, “Always.”

—

Keith was with Shiro, sitting on the couch and watching the morning news as broadcast from the Gasafrost System. Keith also had a newspaper from Hipionioa Galaxy on his ECHO pad, and they were both telling the same news. Someone was stirring up trouble all over the quadrant, and it was probably gonna end up being Voltron’s problem sooner than later.

“What a pain in the ass,” Keith complained, turning off the screen in his hand and tossing it onto the couch. “Let’s ignore it all and play video games.”

Shiro laughed, but grabbed the remote to switch the TV to game mode, because even Altean technology had never quite gotten past the perfection that was the invention of TV remotes. Like, sure they could have done it all by voice command, but it was so much faster and easier to just hit a single button sometimes.

As they booted up a racing game, Shiro was smiling. “You’re back to your old self again,” he commented idly as Keith tossed him his controller. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He really didn’t. As far as he knew, he’d been perfectly good at pretending he didn’t have any kind of amnesia to be affected by.

“Well for one thing,” Shiro painted his X-Wing black because he was predictable, so Keith painted his TIE fighter red. That was not actually what the ships were called and only barely what they looked like, but unfortunately Altean racing cruisers were not a field Keith was proficient in, as the technology was all but lost in favor of goddamned magic lions. “You’re not spending all your time hiding with Lance anymore.”

“Yeah I am,” Keith disagreed. “That was the point in marrying him. To spend all our time together.”

Shiro snorted out a laugh through his nose, and the game counted down to their race in huge Altean numbers. “You know what I mean. You’re actually hanging out bob with me, instead of awkwardly staring at all of us like we’re strangers you don’t know how to interact with.”

“Never did that,” Keith lied. “I am and always was totally normal.” Except for the fact that every word Shiro said was, as always, accurate. Keith had totally been hiding with Lance, which was kind of ironic considering this sudden husband should have been the person Keith found most intimidating.

The truth was, now instead it being the very forefront of his mind the amnesia was an afterfact Keith had all but forgotten about. He still had the odd memory floating through his brain a weird time, but 

“I’m just glad to have you back to normal.”

“Whatever. Watch your back, loser.”

Keith said it referring to the game and now he was coming up behind Shiro to pass him, but it made a different connection in his mind. A memory, rather ill-timed in his opinion, of right before he’d left on an already familiar mission.

‘It’s still a rescue mission,’ Lance was trying to argue as Keith and Pidge suited up into their paladin armor.

‘A distress signal with no message and no answer on the other line,’ Keith argued back. ‘I doubt anyone will be there, friend or foe. It’s probably a ghost ship, in my experience.’

‘Yeah but with all the shit being started by the Zaphians lately, it could be a trap, too. Just promise to watch your back for me?’

Keith kissed him goodbye before putting on his helmet. ‘Alright, I promise to be careful.’

‘Are you two almost done being absolutely disgusting?’ Pidge asked, tapping her foot and waiting for them to take off.

Keith laughed and apologized, following after her.

“Keith are you aware just crashed into a comet, or was that all part of your master plan?” Shiro was asking in the meantime, and Keith shook his head to get rid of the memory.

“Flashback,” he answered quickly, picking up his place in the game where he’d drifted off.

“Are you still getting those?” Shiro almost sounded concerned.

“I think,” Keith smiled, “that was probably the last of them.”

—

“Okay, do you remember… When we went back to Olkarion and all of us tried those giant plant robots again and you and I made ours fight each other?”

“Yup,” Keith confirmed. “I remember that.”

“Okay…” Lance conceded. “What about when we went on that date on the water planet and -“

“-We saw all those glowing jellyfish but then you got too close and almost got stung by a swarm of killer glow-blobs?”

Lance’s grin was radiant, like Keith remembering that stupid little date was the best present Keith could have given him.  “Alright then, how about that time we were at a banquet on Dangrest and I stood up and ripped my pants on the corner of the table and that princess saw my junk?”

“That never happened,” Keith’s eyes narrowed, at he resisted the inane urge to kick at Lance’s shin because it would be meaner than it was productive. “It should have though, that banquet was the most boring thing ever, I think I just played on my phone the whole time.”

“We both did,” Lance laughed. “Okay, do you remember… Our honeymoon when we spent all day in bed watching TV because we were too tired from the wedding and the traveling to the hotel to bother fucking yet?”

The memory made Keith smile, but he bit it down. “No,” he lied, just to see how Lance would react. “I don’t remember anything about our wedding, actually.”

The offended noise Lance made was on the level of an enrage donkey. It was perhaps, the most hilarious reaction Keith could have hoped for. “You don’t remember our wedding?!” In less than a second he was rocketing to his feet, barreling into Keith to grab his hands and cry, “Thenn we need to get married again!”

Keith just laughed again. “Lance, no, I was joking.”

Lance was shaking his head like it didn’t matter. “You got AMNESIA, Keith! If there was ever an excuse to get divorced so we can have another wedding, this is it!”

“We aren’t living in a cartoon, Lance!” Keith laughed, squeezing Lance’s hands instead of actually discouraging this. “We can’t get divorced just so we can get married again, that’s insane.”

“Then just,” Lance pulled him up to his feet, staring at Keith in the eye. “Marry me again anyway.”

“Tell you what,” Keith said, leaning up to kiss him. “In three years when it’s our tenth anniversary, we can hold a second wedding. But not any sooner, because I hate big parties, even ones just for you.”

Lance’s smile was worth a thousand weddings to have the privilege to be married to. 

  
  



End file.
